Various forms of nail pullers are well known in the art. The claw hammer, pinch bar, and hatchets with a V groove recess formed on one side edge of its blade are the most common. The greatest problem in the pulling of nails resides in the fact that most nail pullers rely on the head of the nail sustaining the pull. However, when a well seated nail fails to come out easily, the head of such nail is flexed and bent out of shape, straightened out, and slipped through the claw of the pulling device. Thereafter such means for pulling the nail is useless. The nail would have to be pulled by means of a pincer for grasping the shank of the nail.
There are forms of nail pullers, other than pincers by which the shank of a nail is engaged for and during the pulling operation. U.S. Pat. No. 1,445,514 to Johnson shows a stepped slot for grasping the shank of different sized nails. With such structure, slip outs are possible. U.S. Pat. No. 1,199,948 to Walton shows a hammerhead provided with a bore parallel the hammer handle for receiving a portion of a nail to be pulled and a spring loaded wedge in the bore for urging the head end of such nail against a roughened wall in the bore. While the spring loaded wedge prevents slip-out of the nail, it will be appreciated that the Walton puller is quite complex as well as difficult and expensive to manufacture.
The present invention seeks to overcome such deficiencies and characteristics of construction and operation by a simple structure, economical to manufacture and highly efficient in use.